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Gridiron Challenge: Tight race among the top York-Adams predictors


Friday night marks the halfway point of the high school football regular season, and both the YAIAA division races and the Gridiron Challenge are heating up.

Matt Goul still holds the overall lead among our staff predictors, sitting at 53 correct picks out of 70 games thus far. Tom Sixeas has taken sole possession of second place with 51, and he's followed by Lyzz Jones (50) and Steve Navaroli (49). Bringing up the rear are Brandon Stoneburg (47) and Mike Rubin (46). (Keep reading for a recap of how we got to this point.)

Now that we're into the divisional schedule, we've got fewer matchups and less room for error. (Click here to see this week's preview capsules.) Week 5 will turn on just a few games. Of the 14 matchups, only six of them have any variation among our staffer's predictions. Despite that, only one set of predictions is duplicated this week, so there's plenty of room for the standings to adjust. Here are the picks:

In light of York County Tech's big win against Littlestown, the Spartans' matchup with Biglerville is one of two games with little consensus. Lyzz and Mike are the only ones to pick the Spartans to go up 2-0 in Division III. And Matt and Tom say Susquehanna Township beats Red Land.

Every other deviation in the predictions are cases of "lone wolf" predictions.

Lyzz is going out on a limb twice. She's the only one to pick Littlestown over Delone Catholic, and the only one to pick South Western over Central York. Brandon, meanwhile, looks to gain some ground by picking Eastern York over Dover.

Matt and Tom made the exact same predictions, so their margin of separation will remain the same.

So those are our picks. Now it's your turn. Enter the GameTimePA Gridiron Challenge today for a shot at weekly and grand prizes. All you have to do is predict this week's winners -- how hard is that?

HOW WE GOT HERE

Here's a quick recap of how we've gotten to this point since the last analysis post from before Week 3.

Week 3: Lyzz entered the week in second place trailing Matt, and they made the same predictions except four games. Matt won three of those (Mechanicsburg over Northern, Bermudian Springs over Shippensburg, and Carlisle over South Western) to stay in front. He and Steve both went 15-3, the best records of the week. Steve's showing pushed him into a three-way tie for second with 41 points, along with Lyzz and Tom, who posted the second-best score of the week at 14-4. Brandon also went 14-4 to gain a point in his effort to climb out of the basement.

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Week 4: There were only a few matchups that had variation among our pickers, but Matt got all of them right (wins by Fairfield, Central York and York Catholic) to stay out front. Tom moved into sole possession of second place when he correctly chose Northern York over James Buchanan. Brandon also correctly guessed several of the toss-up matchups, going 9-5 to pass Mike for fifth place.

Both Lyzz and Steve errantly chose Northeastern over Central, and Steve's incorrect Biglerville pick gave him an 8-6 week, sliding him into fourth place. Mike and Brandon were the only ones to pick William Penn and Delone Catholic to win, so they both dropped two points when Red Lion and York Catholic came through with slim victories. But against Mike, Brandon made up for that with wins by Fairfield and Northern.

Also of interest

--- Week 5 football preview: Fairfield challenges stiff Bermudian defense

--- Gridiron Challenge: Predict this week's winners for a shot at prizes